Blue Devil is a game-changer with such dramatic cost saivgns that it creates LEMV and WAAPS capacity that has been previously cost prohibitive. He is absolutely right that a working Blue devil will be beyond the reach of small arms fire and safe from virtually any threat without a technically advanced air force i.e. China, Russia etc. . Like the TARS system along the US southern border, aerostats are already used primarily in uncontested airspace.With the recent FAA approval of domestic drone use over the USA, Homeland Security and local police utilizing FLIR enabled drones for day-to-day law enforcement (arresting cattle ranchers, etc) and conducting warrantless thermal/IR/sensor searches of private property, serious civil rights issues are raised by domestic use of wide-area-persistent-surveillance systems. The specter of Blue Devil class drone blimps utilizing military SIGINT and ARGUS technology over US cities is hardly far-fetched, as the migration of military tech towards police-tech is observable in the examples above, as well as in multiple other signs of military urbanism.In Utah, a police drone blimp has already conducted domestic surveillance with the specific intent of chilling the behavior of witnesses on the ground, with the mayor commenting on how people behave differently when they know they are being watched. A city volunteer who watches security feeds (not vetted law-enforcement) recently commented how the Sandy City, Utah urban surveillance camera network, which views over 25% of all public spaces, is intended to eliminate citizens amnomimnity . The volunteer went on to cheer as a local skater was arrested for sneaking a beer into a water bottle. Now local police will be using military iris scanners and face recognition technology to ID US citizens. Local police are already discussing armed drones.The idea of a gigantic spy blimp over the USA that never blinks and is capable of watching an entire city, recording it, rewinding video in order to trace individuals, track behavior and record the free movement of a democratic society, suggests a serious chilling effect to political speech, activism, protests and freedom of assembly in the United States. The ARGUS, GORGON STARE and ANGELFIRE systems, as well as Blue Devil and WAAPS systems in general, are extremely volatile tools that need to be kept strictly in a non-Homeland Security, non-domestic, non-police arena for exclusive use OUTSIDE the USA. These technologies turned towards domestic security or police actions are an existential threat to personal liberty and a democratic society.Long endurance persistent surveillance drones have no place over the USA. The experience thus far of any country to allow drones to operate in its airspace has been overwhelmingly negative. Surveillance drones quickly creep into becoming armed assault vehicles. How long before Blue Devil is carrying a Hellfire missile just in case or it just deploys Switchblade ram drones to secure uncooperative drivers during a police chase? Maybe this sort of mission creep wont happen but then again, I didn’t think think 10 years ago when i first saw a cobra attack helicopter that today a local cop would be flying a FLIR enabled hexacopter over my neighborhood to check my house’s thermal signature without a warrant. Maybe having a gigantic EYE of Sauron staring down at the Shire wont stop the terror .in fact, maybe that’s why there is a growing insurgency in the first place?